Domers in the News

Published: Summer 2012

Dublin Friday Night Lights, a celebration of American football featuring 12 top U.S. high school and NCAA division III college teams, will showcase doubleheaders in three Dublin, Ireland, area stadiums on August 31. The event, which precedes the Notre Dame-Navy football game on September 1, is produced by Global Football, Inc., whose president is former ND quarterback Patrick Steenberge ’73. In 2009, Steenberge produced the Notre Dame Japan Bowl played in Tokyo, featuring former ND head coach Lou Holtz and a team of ND alumni football players against a Japanese national team. Jeff Curran ’75, a college football referee, will be part of the Dublin officiating crew. . . . Ed Ricciuti ’59 is not taking his retirement lying down. A science writer and former curator of the New York Zoological Society who holds a second-degree black belt in combat hapkido, he was featured in a news story about his class for children at Green Hill Martial Arts in Killingworth, Connecticut. He is co-president of the martial arts school. . . . Robert C. Helmer ’82, president of Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio, has been named president of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. He will assume office in July. . . . The board of directors of Indiana University Health Goshen has named Randal Christophel ’99MBA president and chief executive officer. . . . Joe Muto ’04 has reportedly signed a book deal with Dutton, an imprint of Penguin, to write about his time working at Fox News. Muto gained notoriety this year after penning columns as the anonymous, and quickly outed, “Fox Mole” for the website Gawker. . . . Frank Tripucka ’49 played a role in the recent NFL saga that resulted in Peyton Manning going to the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow heading to the New York Jets. Tripucka’s No. 18 was retired following his tenure as the first quarterback in Bronco history, but the former Irish QB was on board if Manning wants to wear the number this season: “He should have it. Let’s give it to him.” . . . John Arlotta ’71 earned the 2012 General Manager of the Year Award from the National Lacrosse League for his efforts stewarding the Minnesota Swarm. . . . William O’Brien ’92 and Bryan Harkins ’98 are the CEO and COO for Direct Edge, the world’s fourth-largest stock exchange. The company was recognized as the best overall exchange operator in the Wall Street Letter 2012 Institutional Trading Awards. . . . Tim Rogers ’92, the editor of D Magazine, won a National Magazine Award for his profile of a member of the online collective Anonymous. . . . John Hibey ’05 was a screenwriter for Fishing Without Nets, a movie about Somali pirates that won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance. . . . Mike Lee ’09 is continuing to build his professional boxing career and had a June Las Vegas bout scheduled for ESPN. The Subway pitchman has another fight slated for Cowboys Stadium in July that will be broadcast on HBO. . . . Charlie Ebersol ’05 is helping launch reality shows on TNT and USA. He was named as one of the 50 most powerful people in reality television by The Hollywood Reporter. . . . Hanjuan Jin ’98M.S., a Chinese-born U.S. citizen, was convicted in February of stealing trade secrets from the electronics firm Motorola. Jin was apprehended at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as she prepared to board a one-way flight to China, carrying $31,000 and a flash drive with 1,000 Motorola documents, including information on a cellphone walkie-talkie feature. Her attorney had argued that the technology was “far from cutting edge” and would have been of little use to the Chinese military. . . . New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has named Jeff Chiesa ’87 attorney general. Chiesa previously served as chief counsel to the governor and had worked for him in the Newark office of the U.S. Attorney. . . . William H. Rooney ’80, a partner in the Manhattan law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, was named chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section. . . . Professor Cheryl B. Schrader ’87M.S., ’91Ph.D., associate vice president for strategic research initiatives and former engineering dean at Boise State University, has been named chancellor of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. . . . President Barack Obama named Joseph E. Macmanus ’75 as the U.S. representative to the Vienna Office of the United Nations and to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He holds the rank of ambassador for each post. . . . Braintree, an online payments provider for businesses, has named David Corken ’94, ’99MBA chief operating officer. . . . At the behest of Harry Durkin ’53, a former board member of Fort Lauderdale’s Holy Cross Hospital, and Dr. Patrick Taylor ’80, president and CEO of the hospital, TV personality Regis Philbin ’53 has become the medical center’s spokesman in a series of print ads and radio and TV commercials. . . . Sean Cocchia ’96 was promoted to the new role of senior vice president business operations and general manager of Disney Channels Worldwide. . . . Danielle Hermanny ’07, ’11J.D. has been named executive assistant to the president of the University of Portland, Rev. E. William Beauchamp, CSC, ’75J.D., ’81M.Div. . . . Brigadier General Terence Hildner ’84 died in Kabul, Afghanistan, of apparent natural causes in February. Hildner, who was commander of the 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, Fort Hood, Texas, is the highest-ranking U.S. officer to die in Afghanistan. Previously, he served in Iraq and in the last U.S. patrol along the East-West German border before German reunification.